Tourists Need Up-to-date Hotels

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 6, 8 January 1944, Page 6

Tourists Need Up-to-date Hotels

If New Zealand is to entertain large numbers of overseas tourists after the war and send them away metaphorically singing its praises, more will have to be dono to provide “de luxe” hotel accommodation of the type required by Americans with money to spend. This is not to say that the hotel system should bo revolutionised overnight. The aim should bo to cater for a cer-

tain number of such, tourists at first, and to plan so that moro can be provided for as the traffic grows. It is not disputed that the large majority of prewar visitors to New Zealand* found the travel arrangements and hotel accommodation good enough for their needs, at any rate in summer. This country being considered remote, travellers arrived in a tolerant mood and did not expect all the luxuries, or even amenities, to which they were accustomed when travelling in their own homelands.

Some English people, particularly sportsmen, really enjoyed “roughing it.” Most Australians found conditions familiar and felt perfectly at home. Americans in general had only a few grounds for complaint, such as the small ratio of hotel bathrooms to bedrooms, and the almost complete lack of central heating. They found much of the cookery unimaginative, but did not make a fuss about it.

As New Zealand is drawn closer to the United States by air transportation and American visitors come in larger numbers, such people are not likely to accept local ways as readily as in the past. It is field by those who are isi a position to know that many of them will look for certain refinements of accommodation and service that are taken for granted in good hotels throughout the United States. Among these are bedrooms with bath attached,

“room service” of meals when required, more varied menus incorporating some American features, an£ provision for dancing in hotels at tourist resorts.

•An Auckland man who had travelled widely before tho war in Europe and the United States was asked to give his views on the needs of American hotel guests. He offered several suggestions. “It would be a great added attraction to Americans,” he said, “it when booking a tour they could be assured that they would find accommodation of a good American standard at every main tourist centre in New Zealand. By this, 1 mean buildings that would be comfortable in summer or winter; dinner at 8 o’clock, not at 0 o 'clock, with tho summer sun high in the sky; no rigid time-table for meals oaten in a hurry because the dining room must be cleared by a certain time; good coffee in American style, plenty of fruit and salads in season, and ice water always available. “Olio point I found strictly maintained even on railway dining cars in America and Canada was that strangers were never asked to sit together at a table in a first-class hotel. The lone guest was given a table to himself. A party of two or more people was treated similarly, and no vacant place at an occupied table was filled, however many guests were waiting their turn. We might think it strange, but it was the recognised rule.” A consensus of opinion is that, in the earlier stages of post-war American tourist, traffic, New Zealand hotel management should concentrate on ser-

vice rather than on new buildings, but that new hotels of suitable types should be erected as soon as the growth of business warranted, or somew hat earlier if prospects are assured. Naturally, several kinds of hotel would be required—a multi-storey modern building iu Auckland, as the lauding point for tourists, a large “country club” or lakeside hotel at Kotorua, and possibly another in the Lake Taupo region. At all lesser tourist centres there might bo “lodge” or “chatlet” establishments, each with a central building and detached cottages for guests, preferably set iu wooded grounds, the w r hole providing accommodation and service of a “luxury” order. The design of these hotels lends itself well to gradual enlargements.

If American tourists arc to bo properly catered for, certain obstacles set up by the Licensing Act will undoubtedly have to be removed, as it will be essential to make provision for the sale of liquor to guests at tourist hotels, except the smallest and most remote. The archaic section of the Act which, for all practical purposes, puts a ban on dancing or any form of stage entertainment in hotels should be repealed, in order that ballrooms may be included in the designs for any largo hotels to be erected after the war is over. Such rooms are a feature of all first-class American and Canadian hotels, and are used for dancing, conferences, meetings, lectures and social functions of many kinds.

It is also probable that some of tho too-rigid restrictions imposed by industrial awards in recent years will need to be relaxed if full hotel service is to be provided for American visitors. The difficulty of making such changes or of securing amendments to the Licensing Act appears formidable and must be frankly recognised. Unsupported rumours have been circulating to the effect that the Government his plans for establishing a chain of Stateoperated tounst hotels. If the rumours have any basis in fact, such a project may be a means of easing tho restrictions.